Other Half
by Soleara
Summary: Axel and Roxas were best friends. That was it, until Axel was forced into drag, and Roxas figured something out. Akuroku, mentioned Soriku, and implied Zemyx and Xemnaix


Hello everyone

Welcome to Hollow Bastion-Twilight Town High School for Gifted Students. It is a great school, with a great atmosphere. Located in Radiant Garden, it has students from every walk of life and of every personality.

For instance: Axel Seekingsdottir. A brilliant chemistry student, he also excels at psychology. However, his English grades are worse than dismal, and he has a disconcerting habit of blowing things up that often lands him in detention.

Roxas Keyes: Axel's best friend. He is a very good English student, but Math is where his true talent lies. His spatial imaging skills are phenomenal, and he has a bright future in architecture. He does not get into trouble like Axel, but his people skills are lacking.

Sora Keyes: Roxas' twin brother. His social skills are beyond compare. He has friends from every clique in the school. His academic talents consist of a genuine passion for English for which he also possesses a knack, and Geography. If you give the boy a map, he will have it memorized in less than three minutes. He recently started dating Riku Aemi.

"Axel!" A loud voice yelled, directing his yell at a tall boy with really long red hair. "Axel, where have you been?" the voice continued, walking into sight. He was extremely short, looking around five foot four, and had blonde hair. The red haired boy sighed, looking exasperated.

"For the millionth time, Roxas, I've been at school. I had detention!" Axel answered the shorter boy, who was glaring up at him. "Why, did you miss me?" Axel asked him with a grin, winking at his shorter friend.

"Why would I miss you? You're just a random tall person whom I happen to tolerate talking to," Roxas answered him, staring at him in apparent confusion. When Axel began to look slightly hurt, Roxas went easier on him.

"Come on, it was just a joke!" Axel didn't answer.

"Alright, fine. I'm sorry, okay?"

Axel grinned, looking up. "Hah! I made the stone-faced Roxas apologize!" he crowed to the empty street in front of them. He did a little triumph dance.

"So why did you have detention, anyway?" Roxas asked the still dancing red-head, shaking his head at his friend's immaturity.

"Well, you know, a bit of this, a bit of that, a bit of burning down sections of the school in Chem class, the usual stuff," Axel replied, stopping his dance and pulling a lighter out of one of his pockets. He flipped it open and started playing with the flame.

"You're going to get thrown out one of these days, you know," Roxas told him, trying to confiscate the lighter. He missed.

"Well sorry Roxas, didn't realize that you cared that much!" Axel returned, grinning widely. Roxas stared at him. He didn't understand what Axel kept insinuating! Axel had been hinting at something lately that made no sense whatsoever if Roxas thought about it. Therefore, Roxas had given up thinking about it.

"Hey, guys!" a chipper voice called from down the street. A boy carrying what appeared to be a strangely shaped guitar came striding toward them. "Hi, Demyx!" Axel called to him, waving the lighter around in greeting. Roxas didn't say anything.

"Hey, Zexion's parents are letting him have a party tonight, wanna come?" Demyx asked, looking hopeful. Zexion almost never threw parties, but when he did, they always turned out interesting.

"Sure we'll go, right Roxas?" Axel answered, looking at the short blonde. Roxas shrugged and muttered, "Whatever." Axel turned to look at Demyx again and said, "I think that's a yes. Got it memorized?"

"Alright, I'll go tell Zexion to expect you two as well. Oh, Roxas, Sora and Riku are going too, so you might want to take a camera. I'm expecting quality blackmail material tonight!" Demyx told the pair happily before racing off the way he had come.

"He has problems," Roxas muttered under his breath before adding aloud, "Well, Axel, if I'm going to a party later I'll need to go home. See you later." He walked away from Axel, heading towards his house.

"This party is going to be interesting…" Axel murmured to himself. He threw his lighter into the air, flipped it shut, and shoved it into his pocket before going to his house to pack.

He arrived at his house to find a note from his oft-absent actor parents that said something along the lines of, "_Axel, honey, you'll have to find somewhere to stay this weekend, because we don't want you burning the house halfway down again like you did the last time we were away. Signed, your loving parental figures, Eric and Ariel_!"

'How nice of them to leave me a note,' Axel thought sarcastically, taking his lighter out again and burning the note. "Oh, well, I can always stay at Roxas' house. I practically live there anyways," he added out loud, dropping the ashes into the trash can. He headed up to his room.

Axel took out a bag and started throwing stuff into it, not paying attention to what actually went into the bag and what bounced off of it. Toothbrush, hairbrush, hair gel, deodorant, underwear, and pants all made it into the bag. His shirts, however, did not. He didn't notice, and without looking grabbed the bag and headed over to Roxas' house.

Roxas, meanwhile, having no idea of Axel's plans to spend the weekend at his house, had changed into his party clothes. These clothes were like racier versions of his normal clothes, consisting of a ripped no-sleeve black hoodie and black jeans with the knees ripped out. After changing, he sat on his bed and stared at the clock, watching how much longer there was before he would have to go over to Zexion's. Then he heard the doorbell ring.

"Roxas!! Oh, Roxy, Roxas! Did you miss me?" Axel yelled through the closed door into Roxas' house. There was no answer. "Aw, come on, Roxy, don't be like that? Roxas? Fine, I'll break your door down!" Axel shouted, readying his foot to kick in the door that wouldn't open. As his foot descended down onto the poor, unsuspecting door, it opened, and Axel lost his balance. Axel lay sprawled on the floor of Roxas' kitchen, his nose about level with the toe of Roxas' shoe.

"Hi, Roxas! I have to stay over here this weekend. The parental figures ditched me again and decided that I can't be trusted in our house alone," Axel explained, sitting up and leaning against the open door, pushing his spilled items back into his bag. Roxas stared at him.

"You mean I'm stuck with you living with me for the weekend? Axel, you know my parents go on business trips every weekend! What makes you think my house would be any safer than yours?" Roxas asked, thinking in horror of the mess that had occurred the last time Axel had stayed over. His ceiling would never be the same color…

"Yeah, pretty much," Axel answered. "Hey, isn't it time to go over to Zexion's house now?" he asked , grabbing Roxas' arm and dragging Roxas out of his house. He strode off, still dragging Roxas by his arm, with Roxas yelling profanities and protests the entire time.

They arrived at Zexion's house, which was easy to distinguish because of the loud music blasting out of the open windows. Axel opened the door to find all of his friends playing a giant game of Twister. Well, all of his friends except for Demyx, Roxas of course, Riku, and Zexion himself. Of course Axel had to figure out something fun to do while the rest of them were playing Twister! So Axel decided to imitate an eleven car pileup and tackled the pile of people playing Twister.

"Axel, I'm going to kill you, dude!" a large man with an eye-patch yelled, chasing after the redhead. "You'll never catch me, Xigbar, commit it to memory!" Axel yelled back at him, hiding behind Roxas. Roxas put his face in his hands, exasperated. Axel could be so immature sometimes.

"So, since Axel ruined our game of Twister, what are we going to do now?" a pink haired man asked, glaring at Axel who was now staring at the blank TV screen innocently.

"Hey, Marluxia, maybe we could torture Axel! That sounds like fun!" a blonde haired woman suggested, rubbing her palms together.

"That does sound like fun, Larxene. Any suggestions, dudes?" the man called Xigbar asked the group, glaring at Axel. Demyx spoke up with a suggestion of stealing Axel's clothes and making him go around naked the rest of the night, but that was vetoed on the grounds that no one wanted to see that and Axel would probably enjoy it. No one had any suggestions for a while, until Zexion suggested that they call someone over to make Axel look like a girl.

"You know, that might actually be rather funny," Riku, who hadn't spoken until then said. "Yeah, and we know just the girls, don't we Riku?" his brunette boyfriend spoke up. Riku nodded. Sora took out his cell phone and speed-dialed his two female friends, the twins Kairi and Namine. He explained that he needed them to come over for a makeover, but didn't specify who it would be that would receive it. They agreed to be over in about five minutes.

"Now guys, don't do anything hasty," Axel cautioned in a nervous sort of voice as most of the party-goers started advancing on him. Axel yelled "Save me Roxas" as he was pounced on and quickly tied to a chair located on the edge of the room. Then the girls walked in and saw the scene.

"Hey, guys, what's up? Who is getting a makeover?" Kairi asked, looking around for a girl with a terrible makeup job, thinking of course that the makeover-ee was a girl. Namine started laughing. "Hey, Kairi? I think it's Axel," she told her brown-haired sister, still laughing slightly.

"He's being punished for messing up our game of Twister," Marluxia told them, glaring at Axel. "Wait, all of you _guys_ were playing Twister?" Kairi asked, looking a little confused as to the reasons why a bunch of guys would want to play a game that involved a lot of awkward contact.

"Nah, you're just mad at me 'cause I pushed you over before you had the chance to lay all over the rest of the guys, Luxi," Axel teased him, a look of dawning comprehension forming on Kairi's face. Namine started laughing again. Then the girls got ready to start working. Axel began to look scared.

"Alright, what's first? Namine, what do you think?" Kairi asked her sister, pouring out all of her makeup onto the table beside her. Namine pointed to the foundation. "Of course, why didn't I think of that? Now, which color are you…?" Kairi mused to herself, picking up a bottle at random of foundation and opening it. "I think this is it," she said, and brushed some onto Axel's wrist. It matched perfectly. "Am I good, or am I good?" Kairi said to no one in particular, applying the foundation to Axel's face.

The next piece of makeup to be applied was the eye makeup, the two girls decided. They took out a stick of eyeliner and examined it. "I don't know, Kairi. Maybe we should give him the sparkly green eyeliner instead?" Namine asked, pulling out another stick to compare. Kairi looked at her and said, "Definitely! Where have you been hiding this stuff?" They forced Axel to close his eyes and began work.

"Now what?" Demyx asked, becoming impatient. Watching girls put makeup on someone, even a guy, could only be so entertaining for so long. "Now we play poker!" a blond man answered him, pulling out a deck of cards. Everyone agreed, except for Roxas, Kairi, Namine, and Axel of course. Roxas was too busy watching the girls put makeup on Axel to be bothered by anything else. It was _interesting_. There was no other word for it. Axel was looking more and more effeminate by the second, and Roxas was finding it very _interesting_ indeed. Axel was pretty!

"Next is mascara, right?" Kairi said, holding up a tube of black mascara. "Ooh, totally!" Namine answered, grabbing it out of her sister's hands and applying it to Axel's feminine eyelashes. As soon as they were finished, they took out a couple different colors of eye-shadow and frowned at them. "What color is he? Almost anything would clash with his red hair, and he already has green eyeliner… We'll have to use green again, I guess," Kairi decided, starting to brush the color onto Axel's eyelid. Unfortunately, Axel chose this moment to sneeze and got poked in the eye. His eye teared up and his mascara started running, so the girls had to clean him up and fix his makeup. Afterwards, though, they decided that that was worth it, seeing as how he looked much better after they had fixed it.

"I don't think I really want to know, but what's next?" Axel asked them, the first words that he had uttered since he had been tied to the chair. "Blush, of course. And then lipstick, although in your case I think it had better be lip gloss, since pretty much every shade of lipstick I have will clash with your hair," Kairi answered him, not really paying attention. "On second thought, I think your cheeks have enough color in them," Namine added, putting the blush away. 'Oh thank god,' Axel thought as the bright red stuff was once again inside the bag.

"So, now onto lip gloss!" Kairi chattered happily, pulling about five tubes of different colored lip gloss off of the floor where she had dumped her stuff. "The really sparkly light pink, I think," Namine muttered, taking said tube from her sister's hand and opening it. "But Namine, bubblegum is my favorite flavor! I don't want to have to worry about boy germs being on it next time I use it!" Kairi whined, trying to snatch it back from Namine's clutches. "Kairi, I won't even let the tube touch his mouth, okay? See?" Namine replied, squirting a little lip gloss onto her finger and putting it to Axel's mouth. At this, Roxas, for some reason unknown to him, started to feel a little strange.

Roxas, deciding to just give up trying to understand what was going on, stood up and walked over to where Namine was applying lip gloss to Axel's mouth and whispered something into her ear. She stared at him, giggling a little, and handed the tube of lip gloss to him. He imitated her earlier actions and squirted out a little bit of lip gloss onto his finger and started to put it onto Axel's mouth. Axel didn't realize this, because by this time, he had decided to just give up and had closed his eyes.

Axel didn't know what had changed, but something had. The fingers that were applying the lip gloss to his mouth had become unsure, as if they didn't know what they were doing, exactly. It certainly felt different to Axel. He was certain that he knew these fingers from somewhere, and they were very familiar. A flash of inspiration came to him and he opened his eyes and said, "Roxas?"

Axel speaking caused his mouth to open slightly, and Roxas' fingers missed Axel's lip and accidentally went straight into Axel's mouth. Roxas felt Axel's tongue swirl around his fingers and freaked out, pulling them right out and jumping back in fright. This attracted attention from the rest of the group who had been playing poker on the other side of the room.

"Hey, dudes and dudettes, what's going on?" Xigbar asked the four people over on the makeover side, who looked at each other. "Nothing," they chorused, turning their backs on the poker players, who quickly lost interest. "Axel, I think you're done," Namine pronounced then, turning to look at her sister and Roxas for their opinions. Roxas nodded mutely while Kairi made an enthusiastic affirmative sound. They untied Axel from the chair and frog marched him over to the poker table.

"Hey, Kairi, nice makeup job! Will you do Riku next?" Sora asked innocently, while Riku looked at him incredulously. "Well, um, maybe some other time," Kairi stammered, frightened by the glare that Riku had given her.

"Hey, guys, since we're here, can we play? Only we didn't bring any money," Namine asked nervously, looking at the large pile of money in the middle. "Oh, that's easily remedied, we can just play strip poker!" a man with long silver hair suggested, shaking his hair slightly. No one protested, so they cleared the table of money and pulled up four extra chairs.

"Hey, guys? I thought the point was to make Axel look like a girl, not just to put him in make-up," Riku said, grabbing Axel's shoulder as he went to sit down at the poker table.

"Hey, he's right, you know. I know what's missing, girl clothes!" Demyx agreed, and then looked thoughtful. He took out a cell phone and dialed someone. "Rikku, I need you to drop some of your clothes here. No, they aren't for me. Sis, I swear to you, they're for someone else. No, I haven't stolen any of your clothes, now walk over here please with a bag of clothes! Good-bye!"

Everyone stared at him like he was insane. He shrugged. "Hey, it was Rikku or Paine. Yuna's clothes would have looked totally weird. And Paine is just plain weird in her fashion choices," he explained.

Axel put his head in his hands, moaning in embarrassment. "Would you guys take a simple apology and just drop it?" he asked, not very hopefully. Everyone shook their heads. The doorbell rang, and Demyx went to answer it. "Thanks Rikku!" his bright voice said, and then he slammed the door. He walked back into the room and handed the bag of clothes to Axel.

"Pick what you like out of it and go put it on. You can take someone with you to help you," Riku suggested, pushing him up the stairs toward the bathrooms. Roxas followed them, wanting to see what Axel would pick.

They reached the bathroom and Axel entered, and dumped the bag of clothes out onto the floor. He picked out a black spaghetti strap shirt and a pair of extremely short shorts. Axel then started stripping and Roxas blushed. Roxas didn't know why he had blushed; he'd seen Axel naked more than once in gym class, but he couldn't stop himself from blushing.

"Hey, Roxas, you're blushing like a schoolgirl… something you want to say to me?" Axel asked in a low, seductive sounding voice. Roxas jumped, and glared at the red-head. "Put your clothes on, Ax. That's all I want to say to you," he muttered, looking into the mirror at himself.

"Hey, Roxas? How do I look?" Axel asked, poking Roxas in the shoulder and twirling around. "Like a professional drag queen, why?" Roxas answered, staring at Axel in shock. If he hadn't been _sure_ he was straight (A.N. Yeah right! We know better…) he would have found Axel _very_ attractive at that moment. Even his sureness in his sexuality wavered very strongly at the sight in front of him. His legs were devoid of hair because he was on the swim team at school, so he had to shave his legs regularly. For being a person with a strong affinity for fire, Axel really loved swimming. He was wearing a pair of high heels to go with his extreme outfit, and he was still twirling around to show off his outfit.

"Um, how do girls walk in these things? I have to go down stairs, you know," Axel commented, trying to take a step and falling into the bathroom counter. Roxas walked up to him and offered him his arm. Axel took it and leaned heavily on it as they walked down the stairs together. They reached the party room where the others were playing strip poker and were met with a rather disturbing sight. Saix was sitting on Xemnas' lap, both of them half-naked, a shirtless Sora was lying across a sock-less Riku, Kairi and Namine both had lost their socks and bracelets, and all of the rest but Luxord were missing at least their shirt.

"Hey, everybody, Axel's done," Roxas said, shrugging Axel off of his arm where the taller boy had been leaning, attempting to balance himself on the high heels. Fifteen heads turned to look at the tall redhead, who was staring at the abundance of clothes piled up around the large table. He noticed everyone looking at him and jumped, falling over thanks to the heels, and crashing into Roxas and landing on top of him. The rest of the party started laughing uncontrollably at the look on both of the boys' faces; it was a mix of surprise and agitation on Roxas' face, and a mix of surprise and something else unidentifiable to the girls in the party but easily identified by several of the boys on Axel's face. Those who understood it laughed even harder when Roxas threw Axel bodily off of him and stood up, brushing himself off.

"Hey, what time is it?" Sora asked, looking at the kitchen clock and trying to read the ornate numbering on its face and failing.

"It's about eight thirty, why?" Demyx answered, not even trying to read Zexion's foreign looking clock and looking at his watch instead. Sora jumped up out of his oh-so-comfy Riku-seat and yelled, "MOVIE TIME!!" He ran over to the wall next to the television in the living room and started rifling through all of the movies on it. He was closely followed by Demyx, Axel, Larxene, Xemnas, Xigbar, and, surprisingly, Zexion. They started fighting over which movie to watch.

"Let's watch the Little Mermaid! Axel's parents are in it, isn't that cool? And there's so much water, it's just the bomb!" Demyx was saying excitedly, waving said movie frantically in the air.

Xemnas' choice was a new movie called Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix (A.N. Not a movie, I know, but seriously, what else would he choose?). "I want to watch KINGDOM HEARTS!! 'KINGDOM HEARTS, give me your HEARTS, give me your RAGE!'"

"He only wants that one because we all got cast in it as weirdoes. Especially him… although for him it was more type-casting than anything else," Larxene scoffed, pulling The Ring from the shelf. "We're watching this one, a'ight? It's supposed to be pretty _scary_…"

Xigbar knocked her over in his haste to reach the movie wall. "THIS ONE, THIS ONE!!" he yelled, waving a two-disc special edition of Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest. "'S got pirates in it," he offered by way of explanation of his uncharacteristic outburst.

Axel shook his head and grabbed a movie that had a picture of a volcano on the cover. "I want to watch this one, it's got fire on the cover!" Zexion shook his head.

"That's not fire, that's lava. And besides, this movie is what we should really watch," he added, holding up a copy of Aladdin. Then all of them heard it; the sound of peppy cheerleaders, yelling.

Namine, Kairi, and Sora, bored with the fighting, had found themselves intrigued by a locked safe on one of the far movie shelves and had wandered surreptitiously up to it to examine it. Namine, an amateur delinquent as well as make-up artist, easily broke through the showy but not very functional lock on the front and out had spilled a pile of chick flicks. They had rifled through them and quickly had decided to put in Bring It On while the others were fighting.

"I'm sexy, I'm cute, I'm popular to boot! I'm bitchin', great hair, the boys all love to stare!" blared the speakers on the large TV, while Namine, Kairi, and Sora shouted along, attracting the stares of the other partygoers.

"Aah! The cheerleaders… too happy… peppy… chipper… I can't… take it!" Larxene yelled, falling into convulsions on the floor. Marluxia picked her up and moved her into a different room, and he could be heard to be trying to wake her up. (With the use of such uplifting dialogue as, "Get your lazy ass up, bitch! Love and peace don't have near the kick ass-ness as this hippy will let go at you if you don't wake up!!" A resounding slap was heard and Marluxia's voice was heard no more.)

The others arranged themselves around the living room, resigning themselves to the idea that they were going to watch a movie about cheerleaders. Sora, Kairi, and Namine were ecstatic that they were going to see it; all three of them were unnaturally peppy on their own and would have made wonderful cheerleaders if they had been so inclined. The other guests, however, were not near as thrilled with the selection.

Riku didn't really care, because Sora was happy, but he would have been happier with The Ring. Neither Axel nor Roxas were hyped over the movie, but they figured that they could watch all the bloody movies they wanted after they got back to Roxas' house anyway and so it didn't really matter. All of the other guys were in various stages of disappointment except for Zexion, who was hiding his happiness at being able to watch one of his chick-flick stash quite well.

Sora and Riku had taken a spot on the floor and were lying on top of one another, using each other's various body parts as pillows. Axel and Roxas had taken the loveseat and left the couch to the others. Zexion had sat down in a large squishy rocking chair and currently was supporting Demyx who was lying on top of him, also in the large squishy rocking chair. The others had piled onto the couch and each other, with Xemnas and Saix getting the best seats to watch from the couch. Kairi and Namine had long since been sitting very close to the screen, watching the movie with attention riveted on it.

By the time the movie had reached the Regional competition, the members of the (captive) audience were either interested in the movie or had fallen asleep. Xemnas, Sora, Namine, Kairi, Zexion, Demyx, Axel, and though he was loathe to admit it, Roxas, were all watching the movie avidly, while the entire rest of the party was asleep on the couch. (Except for Marluxia and Larxene. No one had seen them since the movie started.)

Finally the movie ended, and with the announcement of the winners of the cheer competition, Roxas and Axel both yelled at the screen, forgetting where they were. They didn't agree with the placing of the squads. Then they stopped yelling and realized that the entire room was staring at them, with the exception of Kairi, Namine, and Sora, who were singing "Hey Micky" along with the cast of the movie. Axel and Roxas sat down, a little embarrassedly, until Roxas looked at the clock and jumped back up, pulling Axel with him.

"Sora, we have to get home. Mom and Dad will be calling the house any minute and if we're not there…" Roxas said, a scared look on his face at the thought of missing the call. Sora paled, and jumped up, promptly falling over Riku.

Roxas, Sora, Axel, and Riku raced out the door, heading straight for the twins' house. Sora reached the door first, skidding to a halt and quickly unlocking the door. The others were in such a hurry to get inside that they crashed into Sora on his way to pick up the phone, which had begun ringing the very minute that he opened the door.

"You have reached the home of the Keyes. Please leave a message after the tone. BEEP."

"Oh… no…," Roxas and Sora whispered together, staring in horror at the answering machine.

"ROXAS!! SORA!! WHERE ARE YOU, MY BABIES?? WHERE ARE MY DARLING CHILDREN?? OH NO, THEY'VE BEEN KIDNAPPED AND ARE BEING TORTURED RIGHT NOW! WE MUST CALL THE AUTHORITIES!!" a woman's voice screamed from the answering machine. Then, a man's, "Honey, we don't know that anything has happened, they might have been doing something and couldn't pick up the phone."

Sora picked up the phone warily, holding it away from his ear for a moment in case of further screaming.

"Mom? Yeah, hi. This is Sora. Roxas is here too. We were over at a friend's house watching movies. No, they weren't 'R' rated. No, we were not watching PORN! Why would you even say that?!" Sora looked in horror at the phone, and then thrust it at Roxas.

"You talk to her. She LISTENS to you, God knows why."

"Hello mom, this is Roxas. Sora told you the truth. No, we were not performing ritual animal sacrifices with Zexion, mother. Oh, and Axel's sleeping over this weekend, his parents left again. And Sora is telling me to tell you that he's staying over at Riku's, too. No, don't worry, we won't set anything on fire. And Sora promises to stay a virgin until after you come home… That was a joke, mother. Bye, I love you." Roxas hung up the phone. He looked at Axel and Riku.

"You say ANYTHING about this to ANYONE, and no one will ever recognize your faces again. They will be BEYOND mutilated. Do you understand me?"

"Yeah, yeah. Hey Sora, you got your stuff ready? Let's go over to my house now," Riku said, dragging Sora and his bag out the door and down the street.

Axel looked at Roxas. Roxas looked back, still looking serious. Then Axel ruined the moment by throwing his head back and HOWLING with laughter. Not just chuckling, but HOWLING. And then Roxas… well, Roxas smirked.

"You do realize that you are still made up like a cheap hooker?" Roxas asked, still smirking. Axel looked down at himself.

"I do not look like a CHEAP hooker. I look like a damned high priced hooker, thank you very much!" he replied, adjusting his Daisy Dukes.

"Come on, loser, let's put our pajamas on. It's not like there's going to be anything interesting happening tonight now anyways. Are you taking the bed or the floor?" Roxas asked, walking toward the stairs.

Axel followed, looking pensive. Then his face brightened.

"Bed. And so are you. It's your house, you get the bed too."

Axel left the room after this pronouncement, heading for the bathroom with his bag. He opened it, pulling out his pajama pants and started rifling through it for the shirt he had thrown into it. When he realized that it was not in the bag, he paused, and smiled.

Roxas, meanwhile, was changing in his own room. He was also wondering what was up with the weird way that Axel had been acting. And what was with his own reaction to Axel in the girl's clothing and make-up. Neither of which was making sense to him. He started pulling his shirt on when he felt a pair of arms wrap around him from behind.

"AXEL!! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Roxas ranted, jumping away from the red-head. Axel cracked up.

"Messing with you. And man, is it fun!"

Axel crawled into bed, patting the spot next to him. Roxas stared at him. Axel stared back. Then he got out of the bed, grabbed Roxas' wrist, and dragged him over to the bed.

"This is your side. I'll take the other side. We'll _share_ the bed, Roxy! Got it memorized?" Axel grinned, knowing how Roxas reacted to both the nickname and the catchphrase. Roxas did not disappoint.

Roxas jumped away from Axel and crossed his arms across his chest. He glared at Axel.

"How many times have I told you not to call me that? I've lost count, I think. And you really need to drop the "Got it memorized?" thing. It scares little children. As does your hair. And I have to ask: what is up with you lately?" Roxas asked at the end of his rant, more calmly if a little confusedly.

Axel made a 'who, me?' face, but it didn't jive with his personality.

"Up with me? Whatever do you mean, Roxas?"

"You know what I'm talking about. Annoying me on purpose to get reactions out of me. Touching me frequently. Wanting to _share_ the bed. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were hitting on me… Unless I'm wrong and I _don't_ know better. Am I wrong?" Roxas answered, still slightly confused but with a look of dawning comprehension.

Axel inwardly started to panic. 'He's not supposed to figure it out yet! I haven't had time to make him like me, that's what this night was for! That's why we're supposed to share the bed!' He outwardly kept his cool.

"What do you think, Roxas? I know you're not dumb, so you ought to be able to figure it out without me telling you," he said, praying that the ploy would work and that Roxas would drop it in favor of working it out on his own. He really should have known better.

"Axel, that misdirection doesn't work with me and you know it. As you said, I'm NOT dumb. I just never pegged you as the kind of person who would be attracted in any way to me," Roxas replied, looking slightly miffed that Axel would try such an obvious diversion tactic with him. He thought Axel had more respect for his tenacity than that.

"Fine. I'll tell you, but you probably won't like it. Roxas, I really, really like you. As in, I dream about you a lot, and want to be around you. What are you going to do about it?" Axel finally capitulated. He watched Roxas somewhat breathlessly, waiting for a response. The one he got was not one he wanted; Roxas turned and walked out the bedroom door. A few minutes later, Axel heard the door shut. He sighed; he decided that waiting up would not do him any good, and laid down. He shut his eyes and was quickly drawn into a dream where the whole confession had gone better and Roxas was more receptive.

Roxas was stunned. He had never seriously entertained that Axel could like him, no matter if he suggested it or not. Axel was just too… loud… to have hidden that from him, he thought. He wondered how long it had been going on, and how blind he must have been to miss it. He was so deep in thought that he almost missed his brother walking up to him from the porch of Riku's house. He hadn't realized he'd walked that far.

"What's wrong, Rox?" Sora asked, falling into step with Roxas. He wondered where Axel was.

"Axel just confessed that he liked me," Roxas answered, not looking at Sora. Sora blinked at him.

"You mean you didn't _know_? Everyone thought you knew! We all thought you were dating!" Sora stared at him. Roxas didn't know Axel liked him? Roxas wasn't dumb, how could he not have known?

"I know. It's dumb, huh? I just thought it was how he was with everyone. Y'know, touching them, joking with them. I just never really paid attention to how he acted with other people, I guess. I feel really stupid, like I should have known. I mean, when we first met I HATED him. Really, truly hated. With every fiber of my being. Only, when we started talking I decided I didn't. And he never acted like he hated me. I don't know why he puts up with me sometimes, honestly. He'd have to be in love with me to deal with me when I get melancholic," Roxas said in a rush. He stopped walking with a jolt. 'He'd have to be in love with me…' he mentally repeated. Axel was _in love_ with him.

"Well, how do you feel about Ax, then? Like I said, we all thought you were dating, me included, and I'm your brother," Sora said, looking rather upset. He'd thought he knew Roxas better than that.

"That's the thing. I don't KNOW how I feel about him. If I was so blind to what he felt, how can I trust myself to know how I feel?" Roxas mumbled, still refusing to look at Sora.

"Alright, here's what we're going to do. We're going to play a game. Hear me out, this will be quick, I promise. It has to, you're keeping me away from Riku," Sora smirked. "Question one: With whom do you spend most of your time?"

"Axel."

"Question two: When you're not with Axel, what do you think about?"

"What Axel's doing, mostly whether or not he's done something I asked or if he's in trouble. What is this going to do, anyway?"

"Be patient, Rox. Question three: Who's opinion matters the most to you, besides your own or your family's?"

"Axel's. Wait. I'm seeing a pattern here."

"Question four: When you think of a life without Axel in it, what do you feel?"

"Empty. Like I have no heart; like a nobody."

"Last question: Why haven't you dated anyone since you became friends with Axel?"

"…"

"Are you seeing my point?"

"When did you become such a relationship expert? I don't remember you ever being good with lovey-dovey stuff until after you started dating Riku," Roxas asked, finally turning to look at his brother. Sora looked sheepish.

"These are the questions Kairi asked _me_ when Riku confessed to me. I was the same as you, completely blown away. I figured out what I felt from answering them; I figured you would too," Sora said, then turned to walk back toward Riku's house. He looked over his shoulder and waved before stepping through the doorway. Roxas thought he saw Riku grab Sora in a hug before the door shut.

Roxas came to a decision. He turned around and started back towards his house, almost jogging. He reached his door and stopped for a moment, second-guessing himself. Then he smiled, albeit a small one, stepped through the doorway, and headed inside.

Axel woke the next morning in a very good mood from his lovely dream of Roxas not running away from him. Then his mind snapped back to reality, and he was hit with a fit of depression. He rolled over only to be faced by a familiar blond head, who murmured in his sleep and scooted closer to Axel. Axel stared at Roxas in shock.

Axel remained in bed with Roxas until the latter woke up. Axel was watching him as if he was committing every piece of Roxas to memory, as he was fond of telling others to do.

"I don't understand. Why are you here? I thought you'd sleep downstairs, since you didn't like me the same way…" Axel asked, watching Roxas intently. Roxas glared at him.

"I'll thank you to _not_ assume anything about what I think, do you understand me? As to sleeping downstairs, why would I when I could sleep in my own bed? And of course I like you, idiot. I just had to figure out that I did," Roxas finally smiled.

Axel stared at Roxas, not comprehending what the blond had just told him. As the words reached him, he started smiling. He launched himself at Roxas and hugged him fiercely, murmuring into his ear, "I didn't know what I was going to do without you, Rox. You're my other half."

Roxas turned to Axel and smiled brilliantly, a smile that warmed Axel right through.

"Of course I'm your other half. I'm the smarter half—Mmph!"

The 'Mmph' was the sound of Axel's mouth descending on the shorter boy's. There was no need to speak after that


End file.
